Troubleshoot Ad Manager line item delivery

Discover and resolve issues blocking line item delivery

For each line item, Google Ad Manager shows recent changes that might be affecting delivery and top reasons why the line item didn't deliver to eligible ad requests. Understanding why a line item hasn't been delivering can help you troubleshoot unexpected behavior.

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See recent changes that might be affecting delivery (Beta)

In the "Health history" section, a 45-day calendar view displays recent changes made to the line item's settings, historical forecasts run for the line item, and other significant spikes or dips in delivery. Each day in the calendar displays the line item's historical delivery progress toward its goal. The calendar also displays when the first impression served, which can be helpful if a line item started to deliver later than anticipated.

For each event in the calendar, click More info to see a visualization or click View Change History to see the specific changes made on that day.

See why your line item didn’t deliver​

In the "Non-delivery causes" section, a pie chart shows the most common reasons the line item didn't delivery to eligible ad requests. Above the pie chart is an estimate of the number of ad requests where this line item was eligible but not selected to serve, rounded to two significant digits. Learn about non-delivery causes

Click See delivered line items for details about winning line items (not available for every non-delivery cause).

Click Launch ad slot troubleshooting to open Ad Manager Delivery tools and learn why certain ads delivered and not others, which line items would deliver if you were to request the ad slot again, and more.

Use the Time period to display drop-down menu to see non-delivery causes over the last 7 days or the last 24-hour, 12-hour, 6-hour, or 3-hour period.

You can also see non-delivery causes when you export line items to a spreadsheet. Make sure to filter to a small number of line items, or the export may time out.

Why is my non-delivery causes chart empty?

Line item always delivers, so there aren't any non-deliveries to troubleshoot.
The line item is delivering and on track to meet its goal, or it's a standard line item with very narrow targeting criteria.

Line item did not deliver at all in the last 7 days.
The tool looks at the last 7 days of data. Check the line item status to ensure that it's delivering. A line item may have a pre-delivery status or be paused or complete.

There's not enough data.
The "Non-delivery causes" tool samples queries and requires a sufficient number of queries over the past 7 days to show non-delivery causes.

Non-delivery causes

Some reasons for non-delivery are valid and don't require action, while others may require changes. For example, other line items with higher priority correctly took priority or your line item is on or ahead of schedule.

Click the links below for more detail about each cause, along with a possible action to take.

Most common causes

Ad Manager can increase your revenue with dynamic allocation — by selectively giving buyers access to valuable inventory when it won’t impact the likelihood of a campaign completing. This non-delivery cause means that an Ad Exchange, AdSense, or AdMob ad lost to an Ad Manager line item. This could be because an ad was not returned, or because the Ad Manager line item had a higher CPM.

Ad Manager can increase your revenue with dynamic allocation — by selectively giving buyers access to valuable inventory when it won’t impact the likelihood of a campaign completing. This non-delivery cause means that the line item was selected as the winner among reservation line item candidates, but ultimately lost to an Ad Exchange, AdSense, or AdMob ad with a higher CPM.

Roadblocks are a common reason for non-delivery but are difficult to diagnose. Your property calls two line items in an unintended order, causing a lower-priority line item to be selected before the roadblock can compete. Without access to both ad units, the roadblock line item can’t bid on one ad unit.

Action: Consider changing the order of requests on your page, or using Google Publisher Tags with a single-request architecture callout.

Ad Manager optimizes delivery for several factors. For example, using click-through rate (CTR) optimization, Ad Manager may select a lower-priority line item over a higher-priority line item because of projected click performance. These optimizations are performed within the context of your campaign completion objectives.

User-level frequency caps are a common reason for a line item to be correctly excluded from competing for a request. This non-delivery cause means that a frequency cap on the number of times the creative can be used has been reached.

Action: Please check the frequency caps set for this line item and make sure that they’re not overly restrictive.

When two line items are of similar priority, selection is based on likelihood of completion. This non-delivery cause typically means that the line item is operating as expected. You may find that a line item loses more often to line items of the same priority than to line items of a higher priority. This does not necessarily indicate a problem. It likely means that you have many line items of the same priority competing for an ad unit and few line items of a higher priority.

Action: Use Ad Manager forecasting to check the available inventory and, depending on the numbers, consider updating the line item settings. You might want to expand the targeting, relax frequency caps, prolong the line item’s runtime, etc.

Ad Manager can increase your revenue with dynamic allocation — by selectively giving buyers access to valuable inventory when it won’t impact the likelihood of a campaign completing. This non-delivery cause means that the line item was selected as the winner among reservation line item candidates, but ultimately lost to a remnant line item with a higher CPM.

Sequential rotation stops working correctly if any creative set to rotate can’t serve to the impression. When the next creative in the sequence is unable to fill an ad slot, the line item stops serving until the next time period begins.

Includes all ad requests filled by demand sources that are not among the top five. This can include ad requests from other line items, Ad Exchange, etc.

Action: Likely none; a large "Other" section is expected when you have a big network with many competing line items. You can use the Ad request simulator (for desktop, mobile web, app, or video) to see all the line items competing for an ad request.

This non-delivery cause is typically associated with Programmatic Direct deals. Low response rate from the buyer can cause line items to underdeliver. Reasons for low or no responses include:

The buyer is not interested in this inventory.

The buyer has paused the creative.

The creative is currently pending approval.

Action: In most cases, no action is required. Contact the buyer to understand their low response rate. Google is often unable to obtain insight into low response rates, and the buyer is in a better position to provide details.